Mylan faced major backlash after they raised the cost of the life saving allergy medicine this week.

Mylan came under fire after it recently hiked the price of their EpiPen, a life saving allergy shot. They have now decided to offer the medicine at a discount price for some patients.

In a statement, the company said it will use a savings card “which will cover up to $300” for the medicine. Mylen claims that those who “were previously paying the full amount of the company’s list price for EpiPen®, this effectively reduces their out-of-pocket cost exposure by 50%.”

We have been a long-term, committed partner to the allergy community and are taking immediate action to help ensure that everyone who needs an EpiPen® Auto-Injector gets one. We recognize the significant burden on patients from continued, rising insurance premiums and being forced increasingly to pay the full list price for medicines at the pharmacy counter. Patients deserve increased price transparency and affordable care, particularly as the system shifts significant costs to them. However, price is only one part of the problem that we are addressing with today’s actions. All involved must also take steps to help meaningfully address the U.S. healthcare crisis, and we are committed to do our part to drive change in collaboration with policymakers, payors, patients and healthcare professionals.”

The Wall Street Journalreported that Mylan and other drug companies said “insurance plans that force consumers to pay an ever-larger share of drug costs out of pocket, and note that few health insurers and drug-benefit managers pay a drug’s list price because of rebates and discounts.”

Mylan said they will expand its patient assistance program to “cover those with incomes up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level, compared with 200 percent presently.” The company will also allow the patients to order the medicine “directly from the company.”

The drastic change has caught the eye of Congress, which has demanded more answers from Mylan:

Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), the chair and ranking Democrat of the Senate Special Committee on Aging, sent a letter to Mylan chief executive Heather Bresch seeking information on the company’s pricing practices.

Since 2007, the price of EpiPen, a commonly used epinephrine auto-injector that treats severe allergic reactions, has shot up by 400 percent to $600. Last year, more than 3.6 million prescriptions for EpiPen were written.

“We are concerned that these drastic price increases could have a serious effect on the health and well-being of everyday Americans,” the letter says. “We are particularly concerned that seniors have access to EpiPen because, according to Mylan’s website, older Americans ‘may be at an increased risk of having a more severe anaphylactic reaction if they are exposed to biting and stinging insects.’ ”

Mylan bought the rights to EpiPen in 2007. They raised the price by 5% in 2008 and 2009. Then they hiked it up 19% at the end of 2009. Between 2010-2013 they raised it 10% each year.

Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton even lashed out at Mylan:

“It’s wrong when drug companies put profits ahead of patients, raising prices without justifying the value behind them,” Clinton said in a statement.

Mylan also said that more than half the amount paid by the health care system for EpiPens goes to pharmacy benefit managers, insurers, wholesalers and pharmacy retailers, not to the company itself.

The company said its net price for the product — what it actually receives after rebates, discounts, patient assistance and product donations — is $274 of the list price of $608, resulting in annual sales of $1.1 billion to the company from the product. The other parties, it said, get $334 per prescription, or $1.3 billion a year.

The EpiPen contains epinephrine, a hormone, “which can be used to counter or stave off anaphylactic shock caused by an insect bite or food allergy.”

But CEO Bresch, the daughter of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) received a YUGE pay raise between 2007-2015:

Proxy filings show that from 2007 to 2015, Mylan CEO Heather Bresch’s total compensation went from $2,453,456 to $18,931,068, a 671 percent increase. During the same period, the company raised EpiPen prices, with the average wholesale price going from $56.64 to $317.82, a 461 percent increase, according to data provided by Connecture.

Mylan Labs (MYL), the Pittsburgh-based pharmaceutical giant at the center of a major drug pricing storm over the EpiPen, managed to pull off a tax-ducking corporate inversion just a year and a half ago.
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When Mylan bought the company that manufactures the EpiPen back in 2007, the cost for a single EpiPen was $57 dollars.

Today, just 9 years later, the cost has skyrocketed to as much as $700 for a pack of two. Many insurance companies cover some or most of the cost; however, millions of children of families who cannot afford insurance must be covered by Medicare which is paid for by the American taxpayer. Others saddled with high deductibles find themselves shelling out thousands of dollars for just a few packs of the device.

————-

What makes the Mylan case so problematic is that the company CEO Heather Bresch is the daughter of Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. Democrats, led by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, have loudly denounced corporate inversions.

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As patents expire, generic drug companies often jump in. But oddly, Israeli-based Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) attempted to present a generic version but was soundly swatted down by the FDA which cited “certain major deficiencies” to Teva’s product. O’Brien smells a rat.

“There is no competition. They have a monopoly. The barriers to entry are really high and right now there’s a low cost alternative trying to work its way through the FDA. I’ve been in this for 11 years. We’ve seen Twin-ject come and go, Auvi-Q (by Sanofi US) come and go.. Auvi-Q was recalled because of 26 unconfirmed reports. There needs to be an investigation into how (Mylan) has been able to maintain this monopoly that it has and yes, these are life saving devices but they can come in a lot of different forms and a healthy marketplace means healthy competition,” said O’Brien.
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With us so far ORDA? Inhale….exhale. It’s good for you to do this.
Here’s some more although the titled article makes me think the author was going to another point.

In late 2013, President Barack Obama signed legislation aimed at increasing the nationwide availability of epinephrine in schools. After passage of The School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act, twelve states now require schools to stock this medication, while, with the exception of Hawaii, forty seven states recommend making it available.

———

A secondary reason for Mylan’s market dominance and $1.3 billion revenue stream can be attributed to the implementation of the School Access to Emergency Epinephrine Act and the states mandates that followed. Schools have become a significant source of demand for the stocking of Mylan’s EpiPen product as school boards, administrators, legislators and health advocates have pushed for its availability.

———

As patents expire, generic drug companies often jump in. But oddly, Israeli-based Teva Pharmaceuticals (TEVA) attempted to present a generic version but was soundly swatted down by the FDA which cited “certain major deficiencies” to Teva’s product. O’Brien smells a rat.
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Still here? Let me add the last little democrat standard that I found on another site. Inhale………exhale.

Heather Bresch was an MBA student at WVU until 1998. In 2007, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported that Bresch had claimed to have an MBA degree from WVU, but the University disputed that.
The University subsequently awarded her an EMBA despite her not having attained sufficient credits (22 out of the required 48). In the ensuing controversy, the University announced in April 2008 that is would rescind Bresch’s
degree.
Michael Garrison, WVU President at the time, was reported to be “a family friend and former business associate of Bresch” and former consultant and lobbyist for Mylan. After a faculty vote of no confidence, Garrison and several University officals subsequently resigned.
——-
Proxy filings show that from 2007 to 2015, Bresch’s compensation went from $2,453,456 to $18,931,068, a 671 percent increase. During the same period, EpiPen prices went from $56.64 to $317.82, a 461 percent increase, according to data provided by Connecture.
*******************************************
So now we know that obama signs legislation to push epinephrine in schools. Why wouldn’t parents be responsible for kids medicines instead of adding more taxes to us taxpayers? Heck most schools can’t give a kid aspirin without a legal consent form.

How much did Manchin’s daughter and Mylan contribute to democrats and obama to get that legislation passed? If the school has to use an EpiPen does the parent reimburse the school the cost of the pen? With a shelf life of one year how many times do schools use the pens?
————–
Manchin’s daughter (how much has she given to the dems and obama?) gets huge raise all the while raising the price of Epi Pens. Hmmm, I smell a (democ)rat here.
Add in the scam on her MBA as reported by the Pittsburgh Post Gazette and something smells of democrat cronyism at it’s worst.

This is only one company that is being singled out for their greed. Many of the old generic drugs that have been around for years are now three and four times as expensive as they were just a year ago. The Wall Street crowd is buying up the small companies and raising the prices on every drug they now own. I am not for any kind of price control but when a drug goes generic it should not be allowed to exceed the 7 year initial costs when it was new. These are the people who run DC and think very little of the rest of us or our needs.

Are you aware that when Republicans added Medicare part “D” to Medicare they wrote a provision that specifically prohibited the SSA from negotiating the price of any drug? I don’t know who you meant by “These are the people who run DC and think very little of the rest of us or our needs”. But that provision is a smoking gun!

So when your buddy obama wrote obamacare and specifically wrote in that Medicare could not negotiate the price it pays for drugs, in return big pharma gave obama 80 billion dollars, does that mean that since not ONE SINGLE Republican voted for obamacare that they are still to blame for that provision? BTW what does the SSA have to do with drugs?

Obviously, you have not run into a drug that you must have or die and for no, zero, nada good reason the price goes up 400%. No research, advertisement, or ingredient cost increases but 400% rise in the purchase price. I now take a drug that is very old, prednisone, that works for me but with terrible side effects. The OLD drug that used to be about $50 for 30 day supply is now $2500 a month. It is the exact same drug that they used to make but the rights to it were sold to a DC insider who now charges $2500 a month. Does that seem fair to you? Oh, that’s right you have high principles!

Everybody notice that Mylan avoided answering the question “How much did your cost per pen go up since you bought the company? Or did it go down?”
They avoid this question because it is the only one that matters and would expose their motive.
Instead, they venture off into a clinton obfuscation response – change the subject and confuse.

Mylan offering EpiPen at a discount will help patients afford it, however EpiPen’s huge price increase is indicative of pharmaceutical industry drug pricing. Recall, for example, the price increase of pyrimethamine. Schumock et al write, “Turing Pharmaceuticals acquired the exclusive marketing rights to pyrimethamine in August 2015 and then raised the price by over 5,000%—from $13.50 to $750 per tablet.”

Company A discovers and produces a life-saving medicine. Overtime, the company’s executives realize the unique value they are providing consumers, and decide they should raise prices by 400%. Company B, Company C, and Company D are attracted to this market because of the fattened profit margins, and believe they can produce a similar product at a cheaper price, competitively providing more value to consumers than Company A. But there is a problem. You see, Company A has former employees that work at the FDA (Federal Drug Administration). They also have a big lobbying budget.

-Company B successfully develops a similar product but it has to be approved by the FDA and is stalled out in a 10-year approval process.

-Company C also develops a similar product, but find themselves in court because Congress has passed strict patent laws preventing competing products in the marketplace.

-Company D was able to replicate Company A’s product at a cheaper price as well, but the only insurance company that would cover it is based in New Hampshire, and because of Federal law, only citizens of New Hampshire can buy this insurance.

While the free market aggressively tried to provide consumers with another competing alternative, Company A was well-connected enough to government bureaucrats and Congressman to protect their monopoly. Then, the loudest proponents of more government power Tweet out to millions of voters saying that the problem was caused by the free market, and only government can offer the solution.

Once again you go off on a subject that is theoretical to you. If there is a problem in your DAILY life and there is no timely solution then you cry out for help. You don’t cry out to change the entire system so that “True market principles” work like they should in a capitalist society which you are doing now. Oh, it sounds so noble and Jeffersonian but it is not killing you by the day like it is to many. There are millions of us out here who are at the mercy of a thirty-something-year-old sitting in his multi-million dollar office laughing at how clever he was at buying that old formula. It might have been caused by big government but that doesn’t make it any easier to swallow. The only solution for those of us who are being screwed by greed is government intervention.

You just don’t get it. If you are flying in a burning airplane do you demand that Boeing redesign the plane that is burning under your feet? Or do you ask for any help you can get from any source. Talk about living in a theoretical world!

The new “discounted” price reminds me of our Township board in the early 90’s.
Years ago they would have a yearly meeting (at some inconvenient time) on raising their salaries which they got to vote for or against.
The gig was to have a “friend” of the board recommend a $5000 increase in salary for the board.
The board would make nice noises about it being too much money, so the “friend” would then recommend a $2000 raise at the meeting and with other board member friends attending and agreeing that the smaller raise was more better it would pass and the board got the raise they wanted all along.
The non participating public would maybe read about the suggested raise and see the board had said it was too much and took a lower raise and would then think kindly of the board.
Bait and switch is all it was. The practice has since been changed and the board no longer gets to vote on their pay.

can expect your airline tickets to go up too as each a/c in US carries at least one med kit containing 2 epi pens by this manufacture and, as of 2008 when I worked records for airlines, had hard date of 6 months for replacement.
this manufacturer was, at that time, only one on approved vendor list for a bunch of airlines so only their product could go onto a/c.

Pure BSD 1%er MBA CEO Manager Capitalism. If your children can’t pay, then they can wheeze and suffocate to death.

It’s not at all surprising that the denizens of “”Legal” “Insurrection”” would support teh children of teh poors suffocating to death, only so long as they are quiet about it so that they don’t disturb their richer 1%er betters.

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